Los Angeles Filmforum
Fund: $45,000
Los Angeles Filmforum will present newly commissioned short media art by five artists based outside of Los Angeles: Colectivo Los Ingrávidos (Mexico); Christopher Harris (Iowa); Hayoun Kwon (South Korea); Tabita Rezaire (French Guyana); and John Torres (Philippines). This selection was made to highlight artists from the diverse expanse of the globe, representing varying ages, traditions, media, aesthetic strategies, and cultural backgrounds. The films and artists will also appear at various venues that partner with Los Angeles Filmforum. Colectivo Los Ingrávidos will make a digital and 16mm work that incorporates Aztec mythology, pre-Hispanic musicians, and dance groups in dialogue with Náhuatl poetry. Christopher Harris will create Speaking in Tongues, a black-and-white 16mm experimental short film about Black ecstasy and the forces arrayed against it. Hayoun Kwon proposes making a 6-minute animation on the fictitious notion of the border, and the tightly controlled border at Panmunjom, Korea. Tabita Rezaire will develop a digital work emerging from her current research on celestial technologies and African cultures of astronomy. John Torres proposes to make a fictional narrative short sci-fi film out of a collection of his documentation of film productions and sets in the Philippines. The artists will personally present their new films alongside earlier works, as part of their first-ever appearances in Los Angeles.